No Expectations: Why Tlaib’s Anti-Semitism is Excused

Rashida Tlaib is not just close with anti-Semites, she’s someone who felt a “calming feeling” about the Holocaust.

In her defense, Tlaib says her comments were taken “out of context” – the go-to defense for under-fire Islamists, in my experience – but provided the opportunity to establish context by useful idiot Seth Meyers last night, she did no such thing.

…she also compared the Palestinian struggle for their own state with the Holocaust.

Her tirade against “racists” – of which she fits the bill far better than, say, President Trump – reveals her insecurity on the matter. Blink and you’ll have missed it though, because she also compared the Palestinian struggle for their own state with the Holocaust.

“The reason why Israel was created,” she began, “was create a safe haven for Jews around the world. And there is, something, like, beautiful about that my ancestors, many had died or had to give up their livelihood, their human dignity, to provide a safe haven for Jews in our world. And that is something I wanted to recognize and kind of honor”.

I’m not making this up. Those are her words. Garbled, bizarre, ahistorical, and full of visual cues (note the eyebrows and the inability to hold focus) that give away her disingenuousness, even at her most moronic. But Tlaib didn’t stop there:

“I also think it is important because I also want Palestinian people to find some sort of, you know, light in this, kind of, what’s happening, but you know in the end I said, I want all of us to feel safe.”

Yep, there it is. “What’s happening” with the Palestinian people being compared, front and centre on a major nightly cable show, to the Holocaust. With no push back from Seth Meyers (who by the way, does not identify as Jewish).

Remember also, the Palestinians were hardly willing participants in the 20th century in establishing a Jewish state. In fact, Arab countries declared war on Israel immediately upon its founding. The Mufti of Palestine allied with Hitler. To this day, terrorists launch thousands of rockets at civilian centers in the Jewish state, while the Israeli Defense Forces has to spend almost as much time defending against media lies as it does defending the nation.

JEW HATE, COMING TO A TELEVISION NEAR YOU

The media push back in Tlaib’s defense has also been fascinating to watch since the story of her comments exploded on these pages and those of the Washington Examinerthis week.

The “Republicans pounce” narrative has turned into a fully-blown meme now. The press scarcely took issue with Tlaib’s comments about finding calm within the memory of the Holocaust, but rather how conservatives took issue with it. Imagine a “Democrats pounce” narrative surrounding Charlottesville, or the travel ban, or the Russiagate? No, I can’t, either.

Given the recent de-platforming of Louis Farrakhan from Facebook, you’d think journalists worth their weight in ink might have reprised this nugget from earlier this year. No such interest, however.

Rashida Tlaib was elected to Congress in 2018 and has quickly become a lightning rod for her criticism of Israel and her associations with Palestinian activists, at least one of whom has compared Zionism to Naziism. Tlaib recently told the New York Times regarding her support for such Palestinians, “respect for free speech does not equate to anti-Semitism.”

When Tlaib worked for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Detroit in 2006, she wrote an article for Louis Farrakhan’s publication The Final Call:

The article appears to have been written specifically for The Final Call; an online search did not turn up any evidence of the article elsewhere. The article is entitled “Bills must stop deportations for minor offenses” and addressed the problem of legal immigrants deported for technicalities and other relatively minor issues. The author bio included with the article reads “(Rashida Tlaib, advocacy coordinator of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Detroit.)”

In January, Tlaib was criticized for tweeting “They forgot what country they represent” about lawmakers who support legislation to oppose the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement targeting Israel:

Rep. Tlaib insists her criticism of the government of Israel and its supporters has nothing in common with anti-Semitism.

Though there is no indication The Final Call or Farrakhan explicitly endorsed Tlaib as a candidate, Askia Muhammad (the photojournalist who took the now-infamous Barack Obama-Louis Farrakhan photo) wrote an August 2018 article for the Final Call regarding Tlaib’s uncontested win of Rep. John Conyers old seat. Askia wrote:

Ms. Tlaib’s victory carries perhaps, the most significance. “She ran on a very progressive agenda. She didn’t bite her tongue, at all,” said Dr. Lusane. Hers “will be an important voice, not just because of her background, but because of the policies that she’s advocated, from increasing the minimum wage, and the peace agenda. It will be great, I think.

“I would suspect that former Representative Conyers would actually be very happy that someone’s coming to take his place who really will represent not only the politics that he advocated for decades, but bring in that additional perspective and experience of being of Palestinian ancestry,” said Dr. Lusane.

Thanks again to Jeryl Bier for the above. It strikes me as likely Jew-hatred will be mainstreamed by the left, soon. With the media in tow.

‘CURRENT YEAR’

One American friend told me yesterday: “I never thought 2019 would be the year I woke up looking forward to dragging anti-Semites on Twitter. But it is, and I do”.

“I never thought 2019 would be the year I woke up looking forward to dragging anti-Semites on Twitter. But it is, and I do”.

Another, this weekend, lamented, “How did we get to the point where 5 per cent of the Democratic Party’s new intake is anti-Semitic? Not just anti-Israel. I mean like, anti-Semitic?”

Well, I think a lot of us know how. But that’s a case for another time.

Both these views reflect how insulated America has been from the nastiness of Jew hate, in Europe and around the world. It is indeed rife, and not confined to one side of the political spectrum.

But much as the mid-left will claim Tlaib or Omar don’t represent their broader cause, we have to imagine the scenario if a Republican made the “calm feeling” comments Tlaib uttered, as President Trump observed yesterday:

Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?

Within seconds the CNN studios would be bustling with talking heads, each itching to give their pre-rehearsed, twenty second “killer” talking point with the Boomeresque hopes of “going viral”. Yes, that is what would happen if the President said such a thing. But what about a Republican lawmaker?

DOUBLE STANDARD

Television studios and newspaper column inches were overflowing with ire when Republican Steve King uttered a throwaway line about the level of offense taken at phrases like “white nationalist” and “white supremacist”.

To be sure, as a brown man, these phrases don’t offend me. Even the underlying philosophy barely registers, because for every so-called “white supremacist” in America today, there are about 10 million ordinary citizens of all stripes ready to outvote and out-debate them.

But King’s comments – more likely made more to highlight the recent media obsession with a group of irrelevant people – were plastered across front pages and broadcast from coast-to-coast for weeks on end. No such infamy for Tlaib, whose consistency in her willingness to assail Jewish people is a feat even for her.

But Tlaib was not picked by the Democratic Party of America to represent the people of Michigan’s 13th district.

She was picked, in a similar fashion to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, to re-activate parts of the Obama coalition that died in the days of Hillary Clinton.

Social justice obsessives, mired in envy and hate, dependent on their religious, racial, or social status for their culture of grievance against the West.

AOC is an amateur when it comes to this stuff. Tlaib and Omar – anti-American extremists – are dab hands.

Governor George W. Bush once said of African-American children struggling in school: “some say it is unfair to hold disadvantaged children to rigorous standards. I say it is discrimination to require anything less — the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

The left has developed a hard bigotry of no expectations of its new representatives. A bigotry sure to bite them in the bum come 2020.

Raheem Kassam is the Global Editor-in-Chief of Human Events. Previously the Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart London, as well as the former senior advisor to Brexit leader Nigel Farage, Kassam is also the bestselling author of 'No Go Zones: How Sharia Law is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You' and 'Enoch Was Right: Rivers of Blood 50 Years On'. Kassam is a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, a fellow at the Bow Group, and a fellow at the Middle East Forum